The brewery: Is in fact Greene King and brewing takes place at it’s site in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. GK acquired the Morland Brewery - based in Abingdon - in 1999. There is now housing on the site where the brewery once stood.
The beer: “A strong fine ale combines the malty taste with a smooth raisin finish. It has great complexity, but it is still rather refreshing. This superior ale is great on nights with a bit of a nip in the air!….Our Master Brewer has created a premium, vintage oak-aged beer which delivers a variety of sophisticated tastes. The marvellous 5X brings resonance, depth and an eruption of fruity, raisin notes, underscored by the malt and toffee from Old Speckled Hen to create a perfectly smooth and rounded beer. Complex, mysterious… and a question and answer all in one.”
I’ve drunk this many times - not least because my nearby Co-Op stocks it - however it was only recently I realised that it wasn’t in the Archive. So here it is.
I must say I like this a lot, wonderfully rich and malty, a real winter warmer but not one to slosh back as a session beer unless you have some paracetamol to hand for the morning! 6.5% A.B.V I much prefer this to the other ‘Hens’.